Episode 1 - Sasquatch

A veterinary lab headed by Dr. Melba S. Ketchum issued a
press release in late 2013, making some bold claims about North America’s legendary
sasquatch.

The press release stated that ‘next generation sequencing’
was used to obtain three whole nuclear genomes from samples that were supposed to
be of sasquatch origin.

Analysis of these samples had purportedly revealed that the North
American sasquatch is a hybrid species, ‘the result of males of an unknown
hominin species crossing with female Homo Sapiens'
around 15,000 years ago. Dr Ketchum also claimed to have seen the sasquatch, and appealed for them to be a protected species across the U.S.

The release promised a paper to follow - which it did under
dubious circumstances.Experienced
geneticists who viewed the paper reported a low opinion of it, noting it made
little sense. Dr. Ketchum soon lost every shred of scientific credibility.